The Mystery of Yomiyama
by Okori Yo
Summary: Conan discovers an unusual case while in Yomiyama, but has he finally encountered a mystery he can't solve?
1. Part 1

Part 1

"May I have your attention, everyone?" Conan looked up from the book he was reading as his teacher waited for the rest of the first grade class to quiet down. It was a hot July day, and most students would rather be outside than stuck in the classroom, and the noise level reflected that. When everyone was focused on her, Kobayashi-sensei smiled and spoke.

"I have some very exciting news to share: our class has been given permission to go on a field trip!" Pausing briefly as a gasp went up from the class, she continued with, "We will be going to Yomiyama City for two weeks in mid-October as part of an elementary school exchange program that has been set up between our school and theirs. This means that we'll be having regular classes at Yomiyama's elementary school as well as going to places around the city to learn more about the area. Now, I know that all of you will want to go, so make sure you give your parents the information booklet I'm going to pass around, ok?"

"We will!" the class chorused. As the students began to talk among themselves about the announcement, Conan leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. He had done a field trip like this back when he was still Shinichi, but that had been nearly a decade ago and so he didn't remember a whole lot aside from that it had been fun. But something else was bothering him…

"You look troubled, Edogawa-kun," Haibara said quietly from her seat beside him. Like him, she had been turned into a child after taking poison that should have killed her.

"I am. It's about Yomiyama. The name sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I've heard it before." He was certain that he hadn't been involved in any cases in the city, nor could he recall any major crimes being committed there in the past few years. Maybe it had been mentioned recently on the news and he was simply remembering that?

"I don't recall them being active in the area, so I'm afraid I know very little about the city." Conan handed her an information booklet while she thought about it some more, then she shook her head. "Whatever you're remembering must not be related to anything we're involved in," Haibara said, turning her attention towards the booklet.

"Yeah," he agreed softly. _Them. _The Black Organization. The group who assumed they had killed Kudo Shinichi, brilliant teenage detective. That was the reason only a few people knew who Edogawa Conan really was, Haibara among them. It still stung, having to hide out as a child, but going on a field trip like this was one of the perks that came with doing so.

Shaking off the thoughts of the past, Conan decided that he would ask Ran about it when he got home. Whatever he had heard about Yomiyama couldn't be too important, but it was worth looking into. At least they wouldn't have to worry about the Black Organization while in the city. Perhaps this field trip would allow him to relax a little. Assuming, of course, that no dead bodies turned up while the class was there, as tended to happen whenever he went outside of Tokyo. As Kobayashi-sensei called for them to settle down and take out their English books, Conan smiled to himself. The more he thought about it, the more fun the field trip sounded.

"Mitsuhiko, is Yomiyama big?" Ayumi asked as she leaned over the bus seat, distracting him from his reading. Glancing over, he saw that their friend and his seat-mate had a map of some sort out and was looking at it intently.

"Hmm…It seems small at first glance because it's in a hilly area, but I would say it's about the same size as Beika, if not bigger," Mitsuhiko replied.

"Hey! I wanna see too!" Genta exclaimed, and Conan hid a smile of amusement as the large boy settled himself on the top of his seat. "Wow, Mitsuhiko, you can read that?" A closer look revealed that map in question was also a detailed topographical map, and the detective wondered where his classmate had gotten something like this.

"Yeah! As a detective, I figure it's important to know how to read a map like this. Right Conan?"

Startled by the sudden question, he stammered back "Y-Yeah, o-of course." Recovering slightly as the others giggled, he added, "It's always good to know how to read all kinds of maps, since you never know when you might have to use one."

"Does that mean you're going to teach us?" Genta asked, and Conan realized that he might have gotten in over his head. They hadn't even left Tokyo yet, and he didn't want to spend the rest of the bus ride acting as a teacher.

"Uh-I suppose so, once we get to the hotel…" As he was scrambling for a response, he glanced across the aisle and saw that Haibara, who had clearly been listening to the conversation, was smirking at him. Shooting her an irritated look, he tried to come up with a better way to say no when he was saved by Ayumi.

"Not now, Genta! I want to see where we'll be going. Aren't we going to a shrine tomorrow morning?" she asked, and Conan breathed a sigh of relief. Genta, being Genta, would definitely listen to Ayumi. And if he was lucky, the other boy would forget all about the map-reading lesson by the time they reached Yomiyama.

"Yep. Yomiyama Shrine is located here, outside the city," Mitsuhiko replied, pointing to a spot on top of a small mountain, then slid his finger to a place within the town. "Our hotel is here, by the way." A quick mental calculation showed that the shrine was just over half an hour away from where they were staying, which meant…

"Hey Genta, we should be able to have breakfast before we leave," Conan joked, and Genta joined in the laugher that followed.

Conan yawned as he trailed behind the others, wishing he was old enough to plausibly order coffee with breakfast. Hot chocolate would just have to do. "Did Kojima-kun keep you up all night studying maps?" Haibara asked, falling into step beside him.

"No, he got bored of it pretty quickly." He had been surprised that Genta had remembered the map lesson after all, but everyone been too tired to do much last night. "Mitsuhiko brought various town maps along, so I was looking at them for a while."

"Expecting trouble?"

"No. Just being prepared." He _always_ had to be prepared now, Black Organization or not. Still, he was here to relax and act like a kid, so he supposed he should start doing so.

"Conan-kun, Ai-chan, over here!" Looking around, he realized that his friends were already seated, and Ayumi was waving at them. Signalling that he understood, he turned to Haibara.

"If something does come up, will you help me? It would be unnatural for Shinichi to consult in the place like this, and Uncle's too far away to call in."

The corner of her mouth lifted slightly as she answered, "You don't believe that there's a suitable detective in town?"

"Highly unlikely." If there was a useful detective in Yomiyama, he could impersonate them if needed, but he'd rather investigate any case on his own. It was just easier that way.

"Then I shall assist you as much as I am able to." Conan smiled at her, then, hearing Ayumi call them again, trotted over to join the others.

They stood at the top of a wooded mountain, having just finished praying for success in their studies and the favour of the local gods. Conan wasn't particularly religious, but he supposed wishing for a little good luck never hurt, so he didn't really mind the trip. Besides, it was a nice day, and the bright sunshine seemed to dispel some of the gloom that hung over the shrine.

He walked away from his classmates who had gathered around the local priest who had acted as their guide, only half-listening to their questions as he examined the building. It seemed to be a typical Shinto shrine, flanked on either side by stone Komainu on pedestals, and made largely of wood. It was old, that much was obvious with the faded boards and worn roof titles, but it seemed to be in decent repair for the most part. Clearly the locals felt that this was an important part of their community, so Conan felt slightly honoured that arrangements had been made to allow them to come. As he was staring at the shrine, a question from one of his classmates caught his attention.

"Kannushi, I have a question! Is it true that a bunch of people died on this mountain a long time ago?"

Turning slightly, the boy watched as the priest's expression froze, then slid into an eerie calm that told him that something was wrong. The man hesitated for a moment longer, then said smoothly, "Yes, it's true. Some students got caught in a sudden storm while they were visiting this shrine, and unfortunately, several of them perished in it."

The class went silent as they digested this news, then Mitsuhiko asked, "But if they thought the weather would turn bad, why did they come up here?"

The priest smiled tightly at him and answered, "The weather can turn bad very quickly, even on a small mountain like this. Besides, I believe that incident happened in late summer, so I'm sure many of you know what summer storms are like."

Heads nodded, and Conan wandered over to where the path leading down the mountain began as the topic changed to more happier subjects. Rubbing his chin, he stared down the mountain, trying to imagine what it would have looked like in a storm. Dark, probably, due to the forest covering the slopes, and the path certainly would have been muddy, especially if it had been raining before the storm hit. He had spotted some exposed rocks on the trip up, which would have posed a hazard if the students had been rushing to escape the weather. Glancing up at the blue sky above, he was suddenly grateful that the weather was nice.

"Conan! Are you excited to go to the amusement part too?" Turning to find Genta standing behind, he saw the grin on his friend's face and smiled back as he nodded in agreement.

"Great! We're all gonna ride the Ferris Wheel once we get there. But only after we check out the food stand!"

"Don't tell me you're hungry already, Genta! We just had breakfast an hour and a half ago…" Ayumi said as she walked up, Haibara beside her.

"Kojima-kun is a growing boy, so he needs his food," Haibara observed, a faint smile on her face as she looked between Conan and Genta. "Kobayashi-sensei said we could start down if we stay in a group," she added as their classmates started to trickle past them.

"Is Mitsuhiko staying behind?" Conan asked curiously, seeing that the remaining Detective Boy was one of the few still gathered around the priest.

"Yeah. He wanted to know more about the deaths that happened, or something," Genta replied with a shrug, then brightened and stepped past Conan to start down the path. "Anyway, let's go! The sooner we get down, the sooner we can go to the amusement park!"

"Yeah!" Jogging after his friend, Ayumi fell into step beside Genta and broke into a marching song, the tune quickly getting picked up by those further down the mountain.

Smiling and shaking his head, Conan went after them, shoving the student deaths to the back of his mind. They had happened a long time ago, and while a tragic event, they had been caused by nature, so there was nothing for him to investigate.

Conan sat with the rest of the Detective Boys, finishing off the remainder of his lunch as the others planned what they were going to do with the rest of their afternoon. The amusement park was pretty small, even by Beika City standards, so there wasn't a lot to do. The boy knew he would go on all the rides at least once, but also wanted to wander around and eavesdrop on the group of Yomiyama Elementary first graders who had met them at the park.

"I'm going to go get a drink. Does anyone want anything?" he asked once there was a break in the conversation.

"No drink for me, but see if they serve eel donburi!"

"Genta, they wouldn't have that here! And I'm ok for now," Mitsuhiko added, shooting his friend a glare

"Thanks, but I don't need anything," Haibara replied, looking up from her meal.

"Um…could you get me some soda, Conan-kun? Any kind is ok," Ayumi asked, giving him a pleased smile as she held out some money.

"Sure, no problem," he agreed, then dashed off towards the food stand. Due to the amount of people around, it was busy, so he took his place at the back of the line and shoved his hands in his pockets, trying to decide what he wanted. Coffee was out, but he could probably get away with some tea if it was flavoured.

He then realized that the pair of Yomiyama Elementary students standing in front of him were talking in hushed tones, and he edged closer to see if he could catch what they were talking about.

"-wa-san's death makes two so far," the boy muttered.

"Don't! Oniisan is in the class. I can't…" his companion, a girl, muttered. The line advanced then, and Conan shuffled forward a few steps, pulling a pamphlet about the city out of his back pocket and pretending to read it while he listened to them talk.

"I know, I know. But I'm ok, though. I'm just saying that it must have started. I heard my parents talking about it last night. They said it was weird that it hadn't started back in the spring, since apparently it always has before."

"Please stop! We're not allowed to talk about this!" the girl pleaded, sounding frightened, then gasped and quickly changed the subject. "So…uh…it's been a warm autumn so far, hasn't it?"

"Er, yeah!" Conan glanced up at them and saw that the girl was staring at him, her face tight with tension. Something had scared her badly, that much was obvious to his trained eye. Giving her a friendly smile, he raised his eyes to the menu board as the line moved forward again, considering the mysterious conversation. It was now clear that Yomiyama wasn't the quiet little town he had taken it to be, and that made his detective senses tingle.

He returned to the group a few minutes later, drinks in hand and a newspaper tucked under his arm. The discussion had moved on to video games, and Conan smiled as he handed Ayumi her can of soda. "Sorry Genta, they don't sell eel donburi here, but one of the restaurants near our hotel does," he said once there was a break in the conversation.

"All right! Thanks, Conan! We're going to go there sometime soon, then," Genta replied, grinning excitedly at the news.

"As long as the prices are fairly cheap, we should be able to get permission from Kobayashi-sensei easily enough," Mitsuhiko added with a nod.

Settling down and opening his can of lemon-flavoured iced tea, the detective opened the newspaper and waited until the others were ignoring him to flip to the deaths section. It being early in the week, the paper listed the deaths that had occurred over the weekend as well. It was unfortunate he didn't have the full name of the person the school children had been talking about, since there were several people whose names ended in "wa": an old man from a heart attack, a young man who had committed suicide, and a middle-aged women in a car accident. Nothing too unusual or mysterious for a city this size, which made the overheard conversation all the more puzzling.

"Conan? Hey, Conan!" Looking up quickly at the call from Genta, he realized everyone had gathered around him and was looking curiously at the newspaper.

"Did someone you know die?" Haibara asked curiously, tugging the page he was looking at closer to her.

"Ah, no, no. I was just looking for the comics and got distracted…" he lied, giving an embarrassed chuckle and hoping they would buy it. "I don't know anyone who lives here, anyway."

"I think I might have a distant relative in this part of the country, but I'm not really sure. You can look at the comics later, Conan-kun. Right now, it's time to ride the Ferris Wheel!" Ayumi said, giving him an excited look. Smiling and nodding back, he folded the paper and put it in his backpack.

As they walked towards the giant wheel, he stepped closer to Haibara and muttered, "I might have something. Let's talk tonight if we can."

"This place is creepy…" Ayumi said, and Conan had to agree with her. The Teitan Elementary students had be allowed to explore the town until supper, so Conan's group had set out, map in hand, to see if they could find anything interesting. At the moment, they had ended up in what seemed like a residential part, full of older buildings covered in ivy that looked rather sinister in the gathering dusk.

"Don't worry, Ayumi. I'll protect you if anything should happen!" Genta answered firmly, placing his hands on his hip and assuming a brave expression. The sudden harsh cawing of a crow overhead made him jump a second later, and everyone chuckled at that, the tension draining away as the crow flew off.

"So, are there any interesting shops around here, Mitsuhiko?" the girl asked, craning to look over her friend's shoulder at the map he held.

"Hmm…there's only a doll shop along this street, but there's a pawn shop nearby," he answered after consulting it closely.

"Let's go to the pawn shop first! They might have some good video games!" Genta exclaimed, looking excited at the prospect of getting a new game.

"Is this the doll shop?" Conan asked, slowing to a halt and looking up at the store in question. Well, he wouldn't really call it a store - it was a concrete building several stories high, with red ivy crawling down from the roof to cover most of the building's front. Windows were scarce, limited to a row along the very top floor and two narrow ones along the left side. In fact, the defining feature of the store could be the large oval widow that was on the ground floor. There was no official sign either, only a stool with a framed quote sitting on it. A small wooden board leaned against the stool, with the words

_Feel Free to Drop In - Studio M_ written on it in neat writing.

"Hey, what does the framed sign say?" Genta asked, leaning over and staring at the kanji intently.

Haibara answered before he did. "_The Hollow Blue Eyes of Yomi at Twilight_," she read slowly, frowning slightly as she considered the words.

"What is that supposed to mean? Did somebody famous say it?" Mitsuhiko asked, turning to look at her and Conan.

"I don't know. I don't recall hearing it before," he replied with a shake of his head. The quote, if it was indeed a quote, was a mystery to him. Unless… "Isn't _Yomi_ a nickname for this city?" He was sure that he had heard one of the local students refer to the city that way while at the amusement park.

"So it's referring to this place at twilight? Weird. Wanna go check it out?" Genta straightened up and jerked a thumb towards the door, obviously intrigued by the strange sign. Everyone agreed to go in, so the larger boy lead the way, opening the door and marching inside. A bell tinkled as the door opened and closed, and Conan found that they were standing in the oddest doll shop he had ever seen.

Dolls were everywhere, but there weren't the typical dolls someone like Ayumi might play with. Some were nearly human-sized, arrayed on shelves and in display cases, and he saw they were mostly ball-jointed dolls, meant for collecting rather than playing with. Which led him to the conclusion that this was a place probably not meant for children.

"Welcome." An old woman with grey hair and pince-nez glasses sat behind the counter, somehow managing to look even creepier than the dolls around her. "My, it's unusual to see children your age here. Are you customers?"

"Good evening, ma'am." Mitsuhiko edged around Genta and bowed politely in greeting. "We're a part of the exchange group from Beika City. May we have a look around?"

"You may. In that case, I'll give you half price." A small sign on the counter indicated that admission was 500 yen, something they could afford even at full price.

"This _is_ a doll shop, right?" Ayumi asked, seemingly nervous around the strange dolls.

"It's both a doll shop and a museum. However, I doubt any of you could afford even the cheapest doll here." The old woman paused, then said in a slightly darker tone, "But please, take your time looking around. I have no other customers. Would you care for some tea?"

"Er…we'll pass, but thank you very much," Mitsuhiko answered tightly, and Conan knew that Ayumi wasn't the only one weirded out by the store.

"Very well. Take your time looking around," the shopkeeper repeated, and Conan quickly placed 250 yen on the counter and took a closer look around. What he saw was disturbing. The dolls themselves seemed very finely made, but they clearly catered to a certain market of collectors. Eyes were missing on some of the dolls, sometimes artistically replaced with flowers or vines coming out of the empty eye socket, while others were fully intact by dressed in such a way that made him blush.

"Genta, be careful you don't bump into anything!" Mitsuhiko hissed as the detective moved deeper into the store, occasionally craning his neck to look at the dolls on the higher shelves. If the street outside had made him feel tense, this place made him feel like he was being watched from all sides.

"Not your typical doll store, is it?" Haibara murmured in his ear, making him freeze for a moment in fright.

Shooting her a glare as he turned to face her, he shook his head. "No, it's definitely not. I would never have expected this town to have a shop like this."

"Unusual things appear in all kinds of places, Edogawa-kun. Surely you must know that by now," she replied, slipping past him and vanishing down a staircase flanked by a sign that read indicated there were more dolls below.

"Conan-kun…we're going to go check out the pawn shop, do you want to come?"

Looking over at Mitsuhiko, Conan shook his head again. "Haibara and I are going to stay for a bit longer. We'll see you there, ok?" He wasn't surprised that the others had chosen not to linger. This place was definitely bizarre.

"Suit yourself, but be careful not to lose your soul!" Genta joked as he headed out of the shop, and the boy rolled his eyes at the urban myth.

"Like one of these things could ever do that to me…" he scoffed, shoving aside his uneasiness to glare at the doll closest to him. Creepy, yes, but unless one of the larger ones somehow fell on him, they were harmless. With a final glance at the silent and unmoving shopkeeper, he followed Haibara down the stairs.

Down below was a partially finished basement, the exposed pipes and concrete walls giving the place an oppressive quality. The fact that the basement looked more like a storeroom than an extension of the shop above didn't help either - dolls in various stages of completion were everywhere, and detached torsos and limbs were strewn about on the floor. It reminded him strongly of a crime scene, or the hidden lair of a serial killer. The few completed dolls that he could see mirrored the provocative style of the ones upstairs, adding to the sinister aura of the place.

After a few seconds of staring, he saw Haibara standing at the back of the room, studying a doll of some sort. Picking his way through the clutter until he was beside her, he looked the doll over as well. It seemed to be another of the full-sized ones, being in a form of a young girl in a low-cut blue dress. The red rose she held in her hand contrasted rather nicely with her loose black hair and the one green eye that wasn't covered by her bangs. However, the open black coffin the doll was displayed in rather diminished the beauty of it in his eyes.

"It's rather haunting, isn't it? I wonder what the creator was thinking when they made it…" Haibara murmured as they continued to study the doll. "Were they thinking of death or of life?"

"Both, maybe?" Conan's gaze dropped to the rose the doll held, and he mused, "Although the rose is more a symbol of love than of life or death. Depending on the culture and context, it can also be used to denote sacrifice or freedom."

"Sacrifice, huh?" Haibara reached out and lightly stroked the edge of the doll's dress, then turned towards him. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I overheard something odd this afternoon. Apparently, someone died recently and one of the local students was pretty upset about it. And there was something about 'it starting', although they didn't say what."

"It's not something for a little boy to be concerned about." Both of them jumped as the doll spoke, and Conan quickly backed away from the coffin, eyes narrowing. Was the room bugged with a listening device and a hidden speaker? Or was it some sort of automatic response? The response had been specific, so that was unlikely. The voice had been that of an older women, not a child like the doll represented.

"Who's there?" he asked sharply, wondering if they had walked into something they shouldn't have.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that?" the voice asked, and the black curtains that were covering the wall beside the doll's coffin parted to reveal a tired-looking woman with long brown hair tied back with a bandana.

Wincing at the harsh look she was giving them, Conan quickly bowed. "I-I'm sorry ma'am! We didn't realize you were there…"

"Clearly."

The woman still looked irritated despite the apology, so he tried again. "If we're not supposed to be down here, I apologize-"

"He was just following me. I saw the sign and decided to take a look. Please accept our humblest apologizes for the intrusion." Haibara cut in, bowing as well.

The woman sighed, then spoke. "Apology accepted. Now run along before it gets too dark…and don't stick your noses into other people's business, boy." Nodding at the reprimand, Conan quickly returned to the staircase and left the basement, deciding that it was time to meet up with Genta at the pawn shop before returning to the hotel for dinner.

Footnotes

**Komainu** - called lion-dogs in English, they act as guardians for the shrine always come in pairs.

**Kannushi** - a general term for Shinto priests used in modern Japan.


	2. Part 2

Part 2

Conan yawned as he waited in the games room of the hotel for Haibara to arrive, idly looking out the window at the cool autumn night. He had promised himself not to stay out too late when he had slipped out of the room he shared with the other two Detective Boys, so he hoped the girl would arrive soon. Luckily, Genta and Mitsuhiko had already gone to sleep, so he didn't have to worry about making up a plausible excuse for sneaking out. He would have preferred to meet somewhere more private, but he didn't want to raise any suspicions by having the security cameras see him somewhere that a student wouldn't normally be.

"Good evening, Kudo-kun," Haibara said as she entered the room, and he nodded back at her.

"Sorry to call you out so late," he replied, as she settled onto a padded bench he was sitting on.

"It happens." Haibara brushed off the apology with a shrug, then stated, "So you believe that something unusual is happening in Yomiyama. What do you know so far?"

"Not much aside from what I told you earlier. Someone whose name ended in 'wa' either died or had their funeral within the past few days, and the two elementary students seemed to think that 'it' was linked to the person's death. Apparently, 'it' is a semi-regular occurrence, if what they heard from their parents is true."

The detective paused, seeing that Haibara was looking at in intently. "I don't have enough information to draw any conclusions, so I need to investigate this most recent death somehow. Which is why I need your help - both to keep the others distracted from what I'm doing, and to act as my cover."

"The project we need to do should provide a sufficient excuse to do research at the local library," the girl said with a nod, catching on to his meaning immediately. "And since the groups haven't been decided, it should be easy enough to sign up as partners. Although, Yoshida-san and the others might not be too happy about it."

"I don't want them to get involved any more than I have to until I know more about the situation, " he said quietly, looking out the window again. The situation might be dangerous, and he would never forgive himself if any of them got hurt.

"Yes, it might be wise to try and protect them for the moment." There was silence for a few minutes, then she said, "The investigation might be difficult, given our present appearances, but if we're smart and careful, we should be able to find something out. I'll inform Kobayashi-sensei of our partnership tomorrow morning."

Turning away from looking at the quiet city, he nodded. "Sounds good. Now, we just need to decide on a research project to use as cover for our investigation. We have the option of making a final decision after we've looked at what's available if we don't come up with something tonight. Do you have any ideas so far?"

Haibara leaned forward as he finished speaking, and the two of them began to plan what they would do next.

"Too bad we can't all be in a group together…" Mitsuhiko looked rather down at the news that Conan and Haibara would be doing a project by themselves, but Conan suspected he was more disappointed that he wouldn't be working with Haibara than anything else.

"That just means that we'll just have to do an awesome project by ourselves! We'll go to the school library right now and see what we can find. Right?" Genta said as they walked out of their temporary classroom for the next two weeks. He, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi had formed their own group, and Conan was sure they would have a blast doing it.

"Yeah! I'm sure we'll come up with something great!" Ayumi added, giving Conan a confident smile.

"Now, now, this isn't a competition…I'm sure Kobayashi-sensei will be happy if both our groups turn in good assignments," Mitsuhiko cautioned, looking amused as his friend's antics.

"She might be, but I won't," Genta muttered with a frown, and Ayumi giggled at his expression.

"If we hurry, we can probably do a little bit of looking before the other groups get there. Are you guys coming too?" Mitsuhiko asked as they came to intersecting hallways and stopped. One way led to the library, while shoe room lay in the other direction.

"No, Haibara and I are going somewhere else," Conan said with a shake of his head. "We'll be back at the hotel before dinner, though."

"Heh. Slacking off already, Conan? You'll never win that way!" Genta taunted with a smirk.

"We'll see about that, Kojima-kun. Let's go, Edogawa-kun. We have work to do," Haibara said, taking a few steps towards the shoe room.

"See you guys later!" Conan said over his shoulder as he followed her, the others calling goodbye as the headed for the school's library. Once the rest of the Detective Boys were out of earshot, he muttered, "They'll never find anything but boring topics here. I'm surprised Mitsuhiko's not going to the public library like us."

"Boring for us maybe, but not for them. They're young after all, and are just learning about things we already know about," Haibara reminded him, smiling faintly as he looked at her curiously. "We were like them once, remember?"

"I guess…but I don't ever remember acting like they do," he grumbled as they entered the shoe room and went to their assigned lockers.

"I'm sure Mouri-san would disagree if you asked her."

"Hmph." Annoyed at her teasing tone, Conan put on his outdoor shoes in silence, adjusted the backpack, and said pointedly, "We can either wait for the next bus or walk - which would you rather?"

"Hm…it's a nice day, so how about we walk?"

The boy looked up at the sky as they exited the school, seeing that while the sky was mostly cloudy, it didn't seem likely to rain. They had plenty of time before dinner, so a walk it was.

"So…according to the papers for the last two weeks, six people whose family names ended in 'wa' died," Conan announced, looking up from his notebook. They were at the very back of Yomiyama's public library, seated at a table tucked into a corner and well away from any other visitors.

"That seems reasonable for a city of this size," Haibara commented. "Anything odd about who they are and how they died?"

"Nothing I can see. From oldest to youngest: Hayakawa Daishin, 73, died peacefully in his sleep. Furukawa Chiho, 61, died in a single-vehicle accident. Nozawa Junji, 58, died of a heart attack. Yoshizawa Hironari, 40, died from an accidental gunshot wound inflicted during the robbery of a store. Akazawa Kazuma, 15, died after choking himself to death. Narusawa Keiji, 12, died of his injuries after a hit-and-run accident. Suspects have been arrested in the robbery and the hit-and-run and are awaiting trials."

"I don't see anything that would point towards anything unusual going on. Perhaps the children were just upset that someone they knew had died?"

"No, I don't think that's it. Neither of them seemed particularly close to the person who had died, except that girl mentioned that her brother was in the same class as the person," Conan said, then blinked as a realization came to him. Another look at the list of names confirmed his suspicion.

"If the girl said her older brother shared a class with them, then that means only Akazawa Kazuma and Narusawa Keiji qualify, since the rest of the deceased are too old to be in school," he explained, sliding his notebook towards Haibara.

"What if they were an adult student or took night classes?" she asked, testing him.

"There's too much of an age difference between the girl and the others to be siblings, unless her parents had her at a very late age," the detective insisted, knowing he was onto something. He should have seen it before really, but he had been too caught up in the idea of solving a mystery on his own that he hadn't made the connection.

"That means we must find out more information on Akazawa-san and Narusawa-san," Haibara said, reaching for the pile of papers that she was been looking through earlier. "I believe the death announcement for Narusawa-san contained some personal information…"

While she searched, Conan flicked through his own pile, eventually locating Akazawa's announcement.

"Narusawa-san died ten days ago after being hit by a car on his way home from school. He attended Yomiyama Elementary and leaves behind his mother and an older brother, Ken'ichi," Haibara read after scanning her article.

"Akazawa-san died four days ago after committing suicide and left behind his parents and a younger sister, Izumi. He attended Yomiyama North Middle School, Class 3-3. Does it say what class Narusawa-san was in?" he asked, surprised at the reference to the class number.

"No, it doesn't," she confirmed, looking surprised as well. "They don't usually list the class, do they? Perhaps it is significant in some way?"

"Maybe." In a place the size of Yomiyama City, it was possible a lot of people would have known Akazawa, so why include what class he was in?

"Wait…one of the students mentioned that this most recent death 'makes two so far', so there must have been another death within the past few months to make people think the two were connected. Let's check the papers tomorrow and see if anything comes up."

"I think I found something," Conan announced as he looked up from the newspaper spread out in front of him. "One Ikenori Shogo died late last month from an unlisted illness. He was also in Class 3-3."

"So that's two students from the same class dead in less than a month. Perhaps Akazawa-san was his friend and his death drove him to kill himself?" Haibara suggested as he passed the paper to her.

"It's a possibility." Conan frowned as he ran over the conversation again. Two dead so far, and one student concerned while the other wasn't. And there was the fact that all of this had happened in early fall instead of in the spring. "Something still doesn't seem right, though. Why would the girl be worried about her brother, unless he was also at risk of committing suicide? Maybe this Class 3-3 has a history of mentally unstable students?" It was a stretch, but perhaps the school's administrators put all the troublesome students in one class so they wouldn't disrupt the others.

"It might be worth looking in to, especially if something like this has happened before," Haibara agreed, rising from her seat. "I shall go ask the librarian if we are allowed to use the microfilm reader so go gather some microfilm rolls from the past few years."

"Sure." As he trotted off towards the microfilm section, Conan decided to gather all the rolls dating back to 1990, figuring that looking at the death and funeral notices from the past six years would be a good starting point for future research, if any was required.

He walked up to the microform machine with an armload of film canisters to find Haibara and the librarian waiting for him. The librarian, an older woman, returned his smile and greeting, but he detected a nervousness about her that made him suspicious.

"Your friend here says that you need to look at past issues of the paper for a research project. Is there anything in particular that you two are looking for?" the woman asked as she set up the machine and loaded the first reel of film.

Ah, so Haibara had left it to him to come up with a cover story. "We want to see how the local paper has changed over the years, and our teacher said that looking at past issues was a good place to start," he improvised, giving her a cheerful smile. There, something simple yet broad enough to allow them to narrow down a more specific topic later if they had to.

"What an interesting topic! Here, let me show you how to use this machine. I know it's a bit old-fashioned, but we don't have enough money to digitize past issues of the paper yet," the woman explained before launching into a tutorial of the microform machine. Conan figured that both he and Haibara already knew how to operate it, but given their current appearance, they had no choice but to listen and ask age appropriate questions.

Finally, they were left alone, and Conan took a seat. "This may take a while, so if you want to go do something else, I won't mind," he told his companion. They still had an hour to spend before they had to return to the hotel, and he had a feeling more microfilm reading would be needed in the future.

"I do not mind waiting while you look," she replied, giving Conan a faint smile before heading back in the direction of their table.

Shrugging, the detective turned to the machine in front of him and examined the front page of the paper that was displayed on the screen. It was dated to late May of this year, and after a quick look through it, he would be moving backwards into 1995 and beyond. He quickly discovered that looking through death announcements and the like was extremely tedious, even for someone like him. Most of the deaths were common to this type of town - illnesses, heart attacks or natural causes, but there were a decent amount of accidental deaths and murders.

"Found something," Conan murmured, sitting up straighter as his eyes landed on the words _'__Class 3-3 of Yomiyama North Middle School__'_. The death had occurred in February of last year, and the deceased were a student and her father who had perished in a car accident while driving in a snowstorm. He relayed this to Haibara and added, "This is only one death linked to the class, so we need more proof."

She nodded and returned to her book as he resumed searching, flicking through the information faster now that he knew what to look for. Half an hour later, he was staring at the screen, shocked by his findings. "This…This can't be possible," the detective breathed, leaning back in his seat.

"What is it, Kudo-kun?"

Slowly, he turned to face Haibara, struggling to wrap his mind around the facts. "In the past five years, 60 people either in or related to Class 3-3 have died. Some of them have been murders, but the majority have been accidents of some kind." Conan paused, then corrected himself. "At least, the papers list them as accidental deaths…"

His shock was mirrored in Haibara's eyes, and he realized that she had drawn away from him while he had been speaking. "That's an incredibly large amount of deaths for a place like this," she said after a few moments.

"Could they be related to the Black Organization?" He hated to ask, but he had to.

"While they certainly like to make deaths look accidental, I do not think so," she replied with a shake of her head. "I never once heard any mention of Yomiyama in relation to their activities, so I still do not believe they are operating here. I also know you wish to investigate this more, but it is getting late so we best leave it until tomorrow."

Frowning, Conan glanced at his watch and confirmed that it was time to go. "Alright," he agreed as he started to shut down the microform machine, "we'll pick up from here tomorrow. Do you want to keep our topic for our project the same or change it?" Looking through the local paper had been rather interesting, and he had spotted some entertaining stories on his way to the death announcements.

"I am fine with keeping this topic. Researching a rural paper seems like something none of the other groups will think of, so it should make for a unique assignment," Haibara said with a smile they walked back to return the microfilm rolls.

"And just where do you think you're going in such a hurry?" Conan froze at the accusatory tone in Mitsuhiko's voice, and turned around to find the boy frowning at him.

"He's probably trying to sneak off to go find a case to solve!" Genta said as he wiggled into his backpack.

"No, no, it's not that!" the detective said quickly, waving his hands as his friends glowered at him. He had been hoping to slip away from the group as soon as class let out, since he really didn't want them following him and Haibara this afternoon.

"Then what _is_ it?" Mitsuhiko demanded, and Conan tried to smile as he scrambled for an answer. A half-truth would just have to do.

"I have a lot of work to do for our assignment, and since I don't know how long it'll take me to find the information I need, I wanted to get to it as fast as possible."

"Oh…" Mitsuhiko suddenly looked ashamed, and Conan relaxed when he said in a kinder tone, "You are really taking this thing seriously, aren't you?"

"Yeah…I'm sorry for not spending a lot of time with you guys, but I'll make up for it, I promise."

"You better! Hey, how about we do something Saturday after our morning classes!" Genta exclaimed, apparently buying his explanation.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun! See you later, Conan-kun!" Conan waved goodbye to the two boys before leaving the classroom, feeling slightly guilty about what he was doing to his friends. It wasn't that he liked lying to them - far from it. But he couldn't risk them getting involved when he had so little information to go on, especially since a lot of the cases he picked up tended to turn dangerous without much warning.

Haibara wasn't in the shoe room when he arrived, so he assumed she had gone on ahead and quickly changed into his outdoor shoes before jogging out of the school. They had decided to not go to the public library again, instead electing to attempt to gather information directly from the source. As Conan headed for Yomiyama North Middle School, he couldn't help but feel that he was making progress. He had started with a scrap of a name only a few days ago, and now he knew that something odd was happening in relation to one particular class. And he was determined to not only find out exactly what it was, but who was responsible for it.

"Good afternoon, Kudo-kun," Haibara greeted him as he walked up, the detective smiling back. "Classes don't let out for another half hour, according to the secretary."

"You went in and asked?" He was surprised that she had been so bold, but her child appearance had probably helped in this instance.

"I did. I said that we were out-of-town relatives of one of the students, and that we had permission to sit in on their club this afternoon," she replied with a shrug.

"Good thinking. We'll have a consistent answer if anyone asks why we're there. I was thinking that the library would be a good place to start, assuming we can get inside."

Haibara nodded in agreement and returned to the book she had been reading, while Conan folded his hands behind his head and stared at the school. It didn't look all that conspicuous - just a plain four-story building made out of concrete, with an athletics field attached to it like any other school. It seemed an odd place for something sinister to happen, but he had learned by now that crimes took place in the unlikeliest of places.

Conan let his mind wander while he waited, wondering how Ran was doing. He had called her a few times since they arrived in Yomiyama, but he hadn't had to chance to have a meaningful conversation with her as Shinichi in a while now. Perhaps he should do so tonight, if he was able to. Checking in with Professor Agasa or Hattori might be a good idea as well, since investigating things from the outside might open up new leads.

The sun was low in the sky by the time the school doors opened, releasing a flood of students, many of them dressed warmly against the mid-autumn afternoon. Shoving his hands in his pockets, the detective adopted a bored look and listened in on the conversations that were taking place as the students left the school grounds.

"Mami-san, are you sure your parents won't mind if I come over?" one girl asked, getting a smile and reassurance that it would be fine from her friend.

"Takabayashi-san, do you think you did well on the test despite all the time you missed?" a girl asked the sickly-looking boy beside her as they walked by.

"I think I did alright. Mochizuki-san lent me his notes, and those helped a lot," the boy replied quietly, and Conan looked after them, wondering what was wrong with him.

The next bunch of students weren't quite as talkative, so the boy focused instead on the students themselves. A girl with reddish-brown hair done up in pigtails walked apart from everyone else, looking downcast, followed by a boy with dark hair and glasses walking with another boy with light brown hair, but the latter seemed more focused on the girl in pigtails in front of them than talking to his companion.

"Fujioka-chan, wait up!" A girl with brown hair suddenly darted between two students coming out of the school gates and dashed down the road, laughing and teasing the two girls who ran after her that they were too slow. By now, the flow of students had eased to a trickle, and Conan decided it was time they go in.

A female student held open the door for them as they entered the school, and smiled when Conan thanked her. He looked around for a moment, then murmured quietly to Haibara, "Did you see a map of the school anywhere?"

"No, but it shouldn't be too hard to find the library." Granted, they had four floors to search, but he assumed a lot of those were classrooms and thus could be skipped over. "We'll have to be careful of the teachers, though," he added, not liking the thought of getting caught before they had a chance to do some research.

While it would have been easier to search if they split up, he didn't want to take any further risks in a strange place, so they wandered the halls side-by-side, occasionally glancing in the open classroom doors. Many were occupied with students who were cleaning up for the day, while others were empty or had teachers doing paperwork in them. The halls seemed old-fashioned to him, having wooden floors and wood panelling on the walls that reached up to the bottom of the windowsills, with the walls and ceiling being painted a dull white. Finding nothing on the first floor, they climbed to the second, narrowly avoiding walking into a teacher as they got to the top of the stairs.

"I'm sorry!" Conan exclaimed, giving the woman his best wide-eyed apologetic look. The woman appeared to be in her late twenties and had long brown hair and light brown eyes. As he stared up at her, the detective was struck by how beautiful she looked and was momentarily envious of her students.

The teacher looked at them for a moment, then smiled and said, "Don't worry about it. Still, you two are awfully young to be here! Are you looking for someone?"

"We're looking for the library. Our cousin is supposed to meet us there, but he didn't tell us where to go!" he answered with a pout, seeing out of the corner of his eye that Haibara was nodding along with his story.

"What a mean cousin you have!" the woman replied, then added, "You're on the correct floor at least. The library is down at the far end of this hall on the left-hand side. If your cousin told Chibiki-san that you were coming, the library should still be unlocked."

"Great. Thank you very much!" he said with a slight bow, giving her a wide smile. Haibara thanked her as well, and they waited for a moment for the teacher to go down the stairs before starting towards the far end of the hallway.

"That went well," the girl commented, glancing out the windows at the courtyard below.

"Yeah, it did," he agreed, feeling more confident about being in the school now that they had successfully convinced a teacher that they should be there.

When they reached the library door, Conan paused for a moment, listening carefully to hear if anyone was inside. All was quiet, so he tried the door and smiled when it slid open easily. Apparently Chibiki-san hadn't locked up for the day before they left.

"Excellent. Now, where should we start?" he asked after a final look down the hall to make sure no lingering students were looking their way. He had a few ideas, but outside input was always good to get.

"If we're looking for information on the students themselves, previous yearbooks seem like a good place to begin," Haibara answered, gazing at the tall shelves of books that filled the room.

"Assuming this school has a newspaper club, their back issues might provide some information as well," Conan mused, walking slowly down the aisle between two shelves. "But we have to figure out how to reach-"

He broke off suddenly as he came to the end of the aisle, his gaze landing on a student sitting at the table at the back of the room. She had chin-length black hair with square white eye patch covering her left eye and had no doubt heard everything they just said. Conan remained frozen for a moment in surprise, scrambling to come up with a decent explanation of why they were there, but only managed a weak "G-Good afternoon…"

"Hello," the girl replied bluntly, her visible eye shifting between him and Haibara. "The yearbooks are on the middle shelf at the back, and I think the bound newspapers are in the same area."

"Uh…thank you, oneesan," he replied after a moment of stunned silence, both weirded out and intrigued by the girl.

"Are there any step-stools around we could borrow?" Haibara asked politely, edging past him to take a few steps towards the student. Clearly she was also interested in her, and Conan briefly wondered if it was because the older girl seemed reclusive. Why else would she be alone after school in the library?

"No, but I can help you get a book you can't reach."

They thanked her again and went to look for the yearbooks, Conan breathing a sigh of relief once they had shelves of books between them.

"Does she bother you that much?" Haibara asked softly as they scanned the middle shelf, narrowing in on the books they wanted.

"I'm not sure. There's just something unsettling about her."

"Perhaps to you, but I quite like her. Besides, some may find your interest in murders unsettling."

Conan narrowed his eyes at the jab, set to grumble about Haibara's distant nature, but was unable to as she plucked a book off the shelf and thrust it at him, saying, "Here's the yearbook for 1990."

"Thanks," he muttered, accepting the next four yearbooks as she handed them to him. Haibara went to look for the newspaper section while he lugged the armload of books back to the table the student was sitting at, deliberately putting them down at the farthest point away from her. He had no idea what they might find while researching, and so didn't want to take the chance of an outsider catching on to what they were doing.

"Excuse me, I don't suppose you could help me with the bound newspapers? They are out of my reach," Haibara asked a few minutes later, causing both Conan and the older girl to look up from their respective books.

"Sure."

The detective shrugged and looked back down at the yearbook, examining the list of names yet again. Nine students were listed as having died during the course of the 1990-1991 school year, and Conan asked himself why no one in town found that unusual. Perhaps in a city the size of Tokyo, that number of deaths would seem normal, maybe even small, but in a place like Yomiyama? It was too many. Far, far, too many. Something was definitely happening here, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

The student and Haibara returned with the bound newspapers while he was writing down the names of those who had died, but the older girl didn't ask any questions, merely returning to her book. As his classmate began to browse the newspapers for the year he was looking at, Conan pushed his notebook towards her and murmured, "See what you can find on those students."

He finished with the yearbook and moved onto the next one, once again writing down the names of those students who had died. This list was shorter however, containing only six names. The school yearbooks and newspapers also didn't list those connected to class 3-3 who had also passed away, meaning he would have to go back to the newspapers at the public library to get a full list of names. He would have done it yesterday, but he hadn't expected to run across such a high death count then.

"What are you two doing here?" Conan looked up at the harsh question to find himself being stared at by an older man. He long white hair sharply contrasted the black clothes he wore, and his eyes seemed hard behind his glasses.

"We're doing research on our project," Haibara replied nonchalantly, and the boy swallowed hard as the man's piercing gaze was turned on her. While the man was distracted, he took the opportunity to flip his notebook closed and slide it into his lap.

"And what project would require two elementary students to come to a middle school?"

"Our project is how the town's newspaper has changed over the years, and we thought looking at a school's newspaper might be helpful," she replied calmly.

The man walked over to the table and looked at the books open in front of them, eventually focusing on Conan. "And how does this school's yearbooks play into that?"

"Um…" That was a good question, but the detective thought he had a good answer. Time to act like a child. Assuming an innocent expression, he said brightly, "Well, the newspaper doesn't always have information on its members and stuff printed in it, right? I figured if there was any changes to the school paper or something, it might be noted in the yearbooks. Lots of useful things are written in them, right, ojisan?"

"I suppose…" The man still didn't look convinced, but he seemed to accept the answer. His next words still made Conan's stomach plummet. "You seem to have gathered a fair amount of information already, so I suggest you take what you have and go home. And if I catch you back here again, I'm informing your teacher and your parents about it."

"Alright…" Disappointed, they began to back up, the boy listening as the man spoke quietly with the student who had been with them.

"They weren't causing you any trouble, were they, Misaki-san?"

"No, they were very well behaved."

"Good. I don't suppose you could escort them out? I'm nearly ready to go home, so I'll be closing the library soon."

"Of course, Chibiki-sensei." Conan shrugged his backpack on and glanced at the man. He must be the librarian, then. From the way he had acted, Conan had assumed he was the principal or someone like that. It only took a few minutes to return the books to their places, and then the student walked with them to the front gates of the school. He thanked her and waved good bye when they parted a block later, then shoved his hands in his pockets and thought about what he had learned.

"Something bad is happening," he said at last, knowing he was stating the obvious. "Too many students have died for it to be an accident, that much I'm now certain of."

"I agree. That seems to leave only one possibility," Haibara said, looking at him seriously. They were thinking the same thing, then.

"Yeah." He stopped and looked back towards Yomiyama North Middle School. "There's a serial killer in this city, and they're targeting Class 3-3. And I'm going to stop them."


	3. Part 3

Part 3

It had taken a bit of searching, but Conan had finally located a phone booth near the hotel they were staying at. He couldn't use the phone in his room since it was impossible for Mitsuhiko and Genta to not listen in, or, if they happened to be out, to accidentally walk in on a conversation they shouldn't be hearing. As he waited for Professor Agasa to pick up, the detective hoped there was some information he was missing about the case available on the internet.

_"__Good evening, this is the Agasa residence. May I ask who is calling?__"_

"Hakase, it's me." Conan smirked at the formal tone his friend was using - Haibara has obviously been on him about his phone manners, and he was being extra-polite in case she called.

"_"__Ah, Shinichi! How is your trip going? Are Ai-kun and the others well?__"_

"Yes, they're fine. Yomiyama is pretty nice, but I think I've uncovered a case and I was hoping you could do some online research for me."

_"__Oh? What kind of case?__"_

As Conan explained everything that he had found so far, he decided that for now, he wouldn't ask Hattori for help. Osaka was a long way away from Yomiyama, and he doubted the Great Detective of the West had even heard of the city. If there was no indication that something sinister was happening to outsiders, then there was probably no rumours that Hattori would be able to pass along.

Once he finished, the professor was silent for a moment. "_A serial killer is a dangerous type of criminal to approach,__"_ he warned. _"__Remember was happened in New York?__"_

Conan sighed, not wanting to get off topic. "Yeah, but everything turned out fine then. As long as I'm careful, I'm sure the same will hold true here. I will be careful, Agasa-hakase. I promise you that."

_"__Very well, Shinichi. I__'__ll have a look and see if I can find out anything online. Call back Saturday night.__"_

"Alright, goodbye." The professor didn't seem too happy about the case Conan had unearthed, but the boy was confident that he would emerge from this unharmed.

Digging in his pocket for more change, he also took out his bowtie and fiddled with the dials on the back. Time to make the call he had been thinking about all evening. Once he finished dialling Ran's number, he leaned back against the glass wall of the phone booth and looked up at the evening sky. The moon was up, just visible above the roofs of the buildings across the street, and he wondered if she was looking at it too.

_"__Hello?__"_

"Hi Ran."

_"__Shinichi!__"_ She seemed both surprised and happy to hear from him, and he grinned to himself, anticipating her next sentence. _"__You idiot, you should have called me sooner!__"_

"I'm sorry! Really, I am. It's this case, it keeps me so busy that sometimes I simply can't call." He knew that Ran wasn't really mad at him, since this type of conversation was normal every time they spoke.

_"__Jeeze, look at you. Off on a case when you should be in school. Everything__'__s going ok, then? You__'__re not in any danger?__"_

Conan bit his lip, wishing he could see her as Shinichi more often. Summoning a cheerful tone, he answered, "I can't really talk about the case, but yeah, I'm doing alright. What are you up to these days?"

_"__Not much outside of school. Dad__'__s working on another case, so I__'__m alone tonight. Oh! Conan-kun is away on a class trip. Have you ever heard of a place called Yomiyama?__"_

"Yomiyama…no, I don't think so. We had some good class trips when we were his age, so I hope he has a good time!"

They chatted for a few more minutes, then when Conan sensed that the conversation was coming to an end, asked, "Hey Ran? Is the moon up in Tokyo?"

_"__The moon? Uh__…__yeah, yeah it is. Why?__"_

"Ah…" He hesitated for a moment, raising his eyes to the rising moon. So she could see it too. "No reason, really. It's just cloudy here, and I thought I heard someone say that it was particularly bright tonight."

_"__I see__…__well, I can__'__t tell if it__'__s brighter than usual, but it looks nice. Shinichi? Come home soon, ok?__"_

Conan closed his eyes, wishing he could be there with her now. "I'll…I'll try, Ran."

_"__Alright. I have homework to do, so I better go. Goodnight, Shinichi.__"_ Ran sounded a little upset, and he couldn't blame her. He should be by her side.

"Goodnight, Ran." Stepping out of the phone booth, he looked up at the moon again, telling himself that he would return to being Shinichi soon.

"See you at the hotel!" Ayumi waved to Conan and Haibara as she walked off with Genta and Mitsuhiko, and the detective turned to his partner. He had given the case some thought during class, and had decided on a plan of action. "Since the serial killer is targeting Class 3-3, they must have a connection to it. We need to find out who was in that class and start investigating them."

Haibara nodded in agreement and asked, "How far back are we looking?"

"Hm…" He frowned, knowing that what he was going to say was all speculation. "Assuming that the serial killer has only been active since 1990, that'll give us three years to look at, since no murders occurred last year or in 1991." He couldn't imagine that the murders had been going on longer than six years - with the large number of deaths involved, the police would have done something already if it had started before that.

"That's a large amount of people to investigate, especially since we can't access Yomiyama North's records." Conan narrowed his eyes at that. He would have to make another trip back to that school, since there was still information there he needed to look at. But this time he would be much more careful now that he had an idea of when the librarian closed the library down.

"I was thinking we could start with the families of the deceased to see if they knew anything," he said at last, digging his notebook out and looking at it for a moment. "We'll make a stop at the library to get the complete list of names, then start from there on Sunday."

"Right, Yoshida-san and the others wish to do something after class tomorrow…" Haibara trailed off, her expression unreadable as she looked at him.

"I don't mind playing with them for an afternoon," Conan replied with a shrug. "Sure, it takes time away from the case, but we are children at the moment. It would be odd if we didn't have fun once in a while. As long as we don't play baseball all afternoon, I'll be fine."

"And if it is baseball, you'll just have to manage, won't you?" she said with a smirk, making him huff in annoyance.

"Come on, let's hurry and catch the next bus. I don't want to walk today," he said quickly, glancing up at the sky. It was overcast, and the clouds had the look of rain.

Raindrops flew off his hood as Conan flipped it back, closing the door of the phone booth behind him. The rain had held off until after supper, so the Detective Boys had been able to play outside all afternoon. Thankfully, while they started with baseball, enough of their classmates had joined them to be able to play soccer later. The boy had been surprised by how much fun he had had, although he never fully forgot the case he was working on. As he waited for Professor Agasa to pick up, he hoped he could solve the case in the week he had left.

_"__Good evening, this is the Agasa residence. May I ask who is calling?__"_

"Good evening, Hakase," he said with a smile.

_"__Ah, hello Shinichi! How is the case going?__"_

"Slow. There's a lot to investigate, and not much time to do so."

_"__Hm, I see. I__'__m afraid I can__'__t be much help to you. All of the official information is pretty generic, designed for tourists and the like. But I did discover something interesting on a message board.__"_Agasa sounded both happy and hesitant, and that made Conan wonder what he had found.

"Oh? What is it?" he prompted after a few moments of silence.

_"__Well__…__some people were talking about how Yomiyama was a cursed place for teenagers to live in, because so many of them ended up dead. People on there said that some students had formed a cult years ago, and the vengeful spirit they had called up still lingered in the town, devouring the souls of unfortunate teenagers who happened across it.__"_

"Hakase…" Conan sighed, slumping against the side of the booth. There was no such thing as a curse, so there was no point looking into it.

_"__I know it__'__s not really true, but that__'__s the only unusual thing about Yomiyama I could find. There was no mention of a serial killer on the loose.__"_

"Oh well. Thanks for looking around. I really appreciate it." If nothing else, the walk from the hotel to the phone booth and back gave him some exercise.

_"__You__'__re welcome, Shinichi. I hope you solve the case, but please be careful.__"_ The Professor sounded worried, so Conan summoned some cheer as he answered.

"I'll be fine, don't worry. I can call you again early this week to check in if you want." Agasa agreed to that, so they said their goodbyes and hung up. As he prepared to go back out into the rain, the detective resolved to focus as much as he could on this case. If no one in town could stop the serial killer, then it was up to him to do it.

"Are you sure you don't need my assistance?" Haibara asked as they stood in the lobby of the hotel.

"No, I'll be alright. I'm just going to talk to some of the families and check out the graveyard. Besides, I need you to keep the others busy." While it might be better if there were two of them, he was confident he would be fine on his own.

"I'm sure I'll think of something, then. Good luck, Kudo-kun," Haibara answered, giving him a mysterious smile as he turned to leave.

"Thanks, but I think you'll be needing more luck than me," he said, waving goodbye as he walked toward the doors. It was still raining, but this time he had an umbrella with him.

"Don't remember anything, huh?" Conan muttered to himself as he left the house of another family who had lost a child to the serial killer. He had gotten much the same response from everyone else he had interviewed so far - they either didn't remember anything strange occurring or refused to talk about it altogether. He understood not wanting to talk, for the wound was still fresh for many of the families.

Shifting his umbrella so that water wouldn't drip onto his notebook, he looked at the list of names again. While he had written down all the names of those who died and as many names of their classmates as he could find, there was no way he could interview them all by himself. He would have to be more selective.

"Akazawa Kazuma…" he murmured, gaze landing on the name of the most recent victim. He hadn't talked to his family yet, but perhaps because the death was so fresh, they would remember something that the other families had forgotten with the passage of time. He was going to stop by the graveyard anyway, so there was no point in delaying any longer.

The rain had tapered to a light drizzle by the time he reached the graveyard, but he put his umbrella up anyway as he started to walk among the rows of graves. He had no idea were the Akazawa family plot was, so he would have to search until he found it. As he walked among the graves, Conan wished that the Japanese had the custom of listing the birth and death dates of those they buried instead of just grouping everyone under the same family name. It might make finding information about this case a little easier.

Even so, he recognized some of the family names of the victims on his list, and a closer look at the graves confirmed that their names were carved there. On occasion, a parent was listed as being buried as well, and he was saddened at the sight of the red kanji alongside the name of the deceased spouse. No parent should have to bury both their child and their partner

Spotting a person with an umbrella standing before a grave a few rows over, Conan kept an eye on them as he continued to look for Akazawa's grave, wondering who they were visiting. As he walked down the row where they stood, he realized that he recognized the person as the sad-looking girl in pigtails who he had saw leaving Yomiyama North a few days prior. Conan slowed as he approached the girl, not wishing to intrude too much. Then he saw the name of the family plot and stopped in his tracks. Akazawa.

"Stupid oniisan…" she said, clearly not realizing that he was there. Everything clicked into place at her words, and Conan glanced between her and the grave of Akazawa Kazuma a few times.

"Is your brother buried here?" he asked, hating to bother her but knowing he had to confirm the information.

"Yeah…" the girl murmured, eyes fixed on the grave of her bother. Fresh flowers sat in front of it, as well as the remains of incense sticks. It was too wet to burn any today, so someone had clearly been here frequently before this. Her, if he had to guess.

"I'm sorry."

"Stupid, selfish oniisan, leaving me alone like this," she said, voice filled with bitterness. Conan reflected that she either hadn't heard him or didn't care to hear pity from a stranger. Her next words proved him wrong. "Thanks for thinking of him," the girl said in a slightly kinder tone. "Did you know him somehow?"

"Ah, no, no. It's just so sad to see someone his age here. I don't mean to bother you, oneesan," he said quickly, not having to fake looking sad. Her brother shouldn't be here at all, and that just made him ever more eager to make sure no more teenagers were buried this year.

"I see…and it's alright, I don't mind. It's rather nice to have someone else here with me. I'm Akazawa Izumi," she said, looking down at him.

"Edogawa Conan. Pleased to meet you, Akazawa-san!" he replied, flashing her a smile.

"And what are you doing here, Edogawa-kun?"

"I'm just looking around…" he replied, looking back her brother's grave.

"A young child, alone in a graveyard?" she mused, and he tried not to fidget.

"My parents don't mind, and I think this place is kind of neat," he offered by way of explanation. They probably wouldn't, now that he thought about it.

"I see…I'm about done here, so would you mind walking to the gate with me?" the girl asked, and Conan looked up at her curiously. She still looked sad, and he realized that she was probably lonely.

"I'll come with you," he agreed with a nod, and was pleased to see her expression lift a little. They both said a final prayer for Akazawa's spirit, then headed back towards the main entrance.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"No, but I do have a close friend who's like a sister to me. What about you?"

"Oniisan was my only one," she replied quietly, and Conan gave her a sympathetic look. Akazawa then said in a sharper tone, "If your friend is that close to you, you should do everything possible to protect and cherish them. Otherwise they might slip away."

"I know…I will." The detective looked down at the wet path and frowned. Ran was dear to him, and he was already doing everything possible to protect her. Hopefully it would be enough.

"Good," she said firmly, and they walked together in comfortable silence until they reached the gate. "Thank you, Edogawa-kun, and goodbye. Be careful going home."

"Ok, I will. Good luck, Akazawa-san," he said, and she nodded before walking away. He should have taken the opportunity to interview her, but something in her expression had made him swallow his questions. Conan watched her until she was out of sight, desperately hoping that she would be able to smile again one day.

"Hm?" Conan had been walking at random, trying to think of a new angle to approach the case by when he realized that he was in a familiar part of town. Tilting his umbrella back, he looked at the building that housed the Studio M. doll shop. After staring at it for a few seconds, he got an idea. Perhaps the old lady who ran it might have some valuable information.

"Welcome," the old woman said as he entered, shaking the rain from his umbrella. "My, it's unusual to see children your age here. Are you a customer?"

"No, obaasan. I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me, if you're not busy." As before, the shop was deserted except for her, and the multitude of dolls seemed to be staring at him in the dim light.

"Not as customer? Understandable, since I doubt you could afford even the cheapest doll here. But I will answer your questions if I can. Would you care for some tea?"

Conan blinked at the familiar-sounding dialogue, then nodded. "Yes please." As the shopkeeper vanished into a hidden back room, the detective waited by the counter, not wishing to venture further into the shop unless he had to. Still, he had to admit that the dolls were nice to look at in their own weird way, so he passed the time by examining those closest to the door.

When the old lady returned, tea tray in hand, she also brought along a stool and set it on the side of the counter Conan was on. After he scrambled up onto it, she handed him a cup of tea. "What do you wish to ask me, child?"

"Um…I know this will sound weird, but do you know of any strange things happening in the last five years or so?"

"Strange things, hm? Many strange things happen in this town. Even the name of this town is strange. Yomiyama. Care to be more specific?" She sipped her tea calmly then, as if she had all the time in the world to talk. Perhaps she did.

"Well, I heard someone say that a lot of people die for a town this size, and I wanted to know if it was true," he asked carefully, watching her closely.

The old woman froze for a moment, then set her tea cup down. "Do you believe in curses, child?"

"No."

"No, of course you don't. You're too small to be possessed, anyway." She chuckled at that, then continued in a more serious tone, "You should believe in them, because this town is cursed. Cursed with death, that is."

Conan took a drink of tea, using the motion to hide a smile. This again. He supposed he should have known better than to ask an old lady about strange occurrences. "How so?" he asked as politely as he could.

"Some say that a group of teenagers summoned a demon many years ago to get revenge on one of their classmates, but I don't believe that. No, Death itself resides in this town, killing people and taking their souls in revenge for being forced to stay here. And it has been here for a long time, too. Who called Death here and why it continues to stay, I cannot say, but that is the reason for all of the deaths." The shopkeeper paused to take a drink, then waved a hand at the shop. "It's why I like being around all these dolls, you see. There is no way Death is going to get _my_ soul!"

Conan spent a few more minutes with the old lady, then left once he had finished his tea. The rain had stopped, so he tucked his umbrella under his arm and went through his notes again. Blaming everything on a curse seemed typical behaviour for a small town like this, but he knew that the serial killer was still out there, no doubt already planning to kill their next victim.

Footnote

On traditional Japanese family graves, when a widow or widower buys a grave for their deceased spouse, their names are sometimes carved into the stone at the same time to cut down on costs, with the living spouse's name in red to signify they are still alive.


	4. Part 4

Part 4

"How is your project coming along?" Ayumi asked as she slid into the seat across from him. The Detective Boys had agreed to meet at Inoya Café, a small cafe that was close to their hotel. The stone walls and dim lighting seemed to give it more of a bar atmosphere, but the waitress had said that kids were allowed.

"Really good! Our research is nearly done, which I think is great. How about yours?" he asked, looking over as Genta and Mitsuhiko came in the door, seemingly in the middle of an argument over Kamen Yaiba.

"It's going good too, and Genta says you'll be really surprised with what topic we're doing!" she replied, giving him a smile as the other two boys arrived at the table.

"Where's Haibara-san?" Mitsuhiko asked as he sat down beside Conan.

"She said she was going back to the hotel to do a few things," the detective replied, wondering if all the research and investigating was tiring Haibara out. They had spent their free time after class working on their project, and he suspected that she was doing some investigating of her own.

"Did she eat too much or something?" Genta asked as the waitress came up to the table.

Everyone put in an order, then Ayumi said, "I don't think so, but maybe she's not feeling well? Let's check on her once we get back!"

"Yeah!" Genta and Mitsuhiko chorused, and Conan nodded. She had mentioned something about calling Professor Agasa, so he hoped for his friend's sake that she was in a good mood.

"Conan, help me out here. Mitsuhiko thinks that Yaiba doesn't have any other secret moves to show off, but I sure he's wrong and I need to convince him!" Genta explained, shooting an irritated look at the other Detective Boy.

"No, _you__'__re_ wrong! I have analyzed everything carefully, and I'm certain that Yaiba will come up with a new move shortly. What do you think, Conan-kun?" Mitsuhiko asked, glaring right back at his friend.

"Uh…" Hoping he wouldn't have to deal with arguing room mates for the rest of the night, Conan gave a tense smile and tried to decide which side of the argument to back.

Conan leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, tired of staring at the microform screen. He had just finished going over the death notices and such for 1990 to 1994, and hadn't discovered anything new.

"Perhaps the serial killer decided to act after something happened to him personally?: Haibara suggested from her place beside him.

"That's a good possibility. It would have to be something major to go on a spree like this, so there would probably be some record of it in the paper," he murmured back, reaching for the microfilm canister for 1989.

"H-Haibara…" he said shakily a minute later, staring at the screen in horror. She leaned over his shoulder to look, and he heard her gasp as she read the familiar words on the screen. _Class 3-3 of Yomiyama North Middle School_. "This can't be true…"

"Maybe it is. Maybe the killer has been active for years. Keep looking," she urged, sounding just as broken as he felt. Conan began to scroll back through the 1989 papers, automatically writing down the names of people who had that terrible line mentioned with their death. 1988 was quiet for the most part, but he found more deaths linked to Class 3-3 in the first three months of the year. 1987. 1986. 1985. The list of names kept getting longer, and his stomach kept twisting into bigger knots. This couldn't be true. It just couldn't be.

"They stopped," Haibara breathed, and Conan blinked coming out of the daze he had fallen in. The newspaper was dated March of 1984, and all the death notices and funeral announcements appeared normal. Wanting to be sure, he flicked backwards into 1983, but the relief he felt at not seeing _'__Class of 3-3__'_ vanished when he came to the third week in August.

"Hamaguchi Jun and Hoshikawa Yuki, both from that class. Both died on the same day," he read aloud, rubbing his chin as he thought about the possibilities.

"Didn't the deaths at the shrine we visited happen in 1983? Perhaps these are the student who died," Haibara said, and he looked over to see her examining the death announcements closely.

"But those deaths were weather related. There's no way the serial killer could have planned them. Even if he was targeting those students, the storm killing them was just coincidence," he objected. A serial killer betting on the weather to do his work for him was far too risky, and it didn't seem to follow the logic of the later victims at all. "Let's keep going back and see if there were deaths prior to the shrine visit."

To his dismay, there were. As he worked backwards through the summer and into spring, more deaths appeared. "How far back are we going?" Haibara asked.

"As far back as we need to," he said, not caring how long it took them, even if they were late for supper.

"Then allow me to help," she pressed, and he shifted the chair over so that she could sit beside him, Conan continuing to operate the machine while she wrote down the names. As they neared the year 1981, he realized that the death count was nearing 150 victims. Were the police here that incompetent that they couldn't see what was happening?!

He had already gone past the photograph by the time its contents registered in his mind. Pausing, he went back to it and stared at the picture, leaning in close to try and see better. It was old, and was rather faded from being scanned onto the microfilm, but with the exception of one student, he was able to see their faces clearly. Once he was certain, he read the caption beneath the photograph. _'__The graduates of Class 3-3 of Yomiyama North High School, with their homeroom teacher Chibiki Tatsuji.__'_ The date on the paper was March of 1973.

"That's him. That must be him," Conan breathed, then explained to Haibara, "The librarian we met was once the teacher for Class 3-3. If my theory's correct, we just found the serial killer!"

"How so?"

He was unable to keep the smile off his face as he explained his reasoning. "Well, the serial killer would have to have lived in Yomiyama for years in order to keep murdering people, right? Plus he would have to be someone with both a connection to the school and to the community. Chibiki fits both - he's been at the school for years, and he's often involved in community events." Conan had noticed that one name kept coming up over and over as he scrolled backwards through the papers, that of Chibiki Tatsuji. He hadn't really considered the man a suspect until he had seen the connection he had with Class 3-3, and then everything clicked into place.

Haibara looked at him for a moment, then smiled, his desire to end this case mirrored in her expression. "If so, then we better look into his motive for doing such heinous acts," she said quietly, and he nodded. This case was nearly solved, that much he knew.

"Serious, somewhat harsh, and has a love for theatre…" Conan mumbled as he re-read the scant notes he had managed to get on Chibiki. "Librarian at Yomiyama North since 1974, occasionally active in local theatre groups and well-respected by the community." If Chibiki had kept under the radar this long without garnering suspicion about what he was really doing, it made sense for him to be liked by those who knew him. The detective wished he could interview people directly associated with the man, like fellow teachers and family members, but he was running out of time and doing so would surely alert his suspect that he was close to being caught.

Conan looked out the window at the rain-drenched town, wishing he could stay longer and see this case through to the end. He would just have to call the local police as Shinichi before he left, and maybe he could convince Hattori to come in to ensure that Chibiki was caught and put on trial. If the man turned violent during the confrontation tomorrow, he would put him to sleep using his watch and escape. Then Yomiyama would go back to being the peaceful town it was supposed to be once he left.

"Tomorrow," he vowed to the falling rain. "Tomorrow this will all end!"

"I'm coming with you," Haibara said immediately after Conan outlined what he was going to do. He frowned in irritation, and opened his mouth to refuse, but was cut off. "Don't bother trying to persuade me to stay. This is dangerous, so I'm coming with you, Edogawa-kun."

"…Fine," he agreed, glancing around at the rest of the class. Everyone was enjoying their lunch, so no one was listening to them. "We'll meet in the shoe room after class and go to the school from there." Haibara nodded to show she understood, and Conan began to eat his lunch, his mind on the end of the case.

"Alright, everyone's pretty much gone," Conan said as he peered around the corner at the school gates. The rain hadn't let up, so he and Haibara had elected to wait a little farther away as to both stay out of the weather and to not look quite so obvious. Only a few students passed them as they went in, most walking fast as to avoid spending too much time in the rain. Once they reached the school, the pair headed for the stairs, and Conan felt his heart start to pound with excitement. Everything would all be over soon.

They stood in front of the library a few minutes later, and Conan tried the door, praying that it wasn't locked. As on their last visit, it slid open easily, and he edged in, careful to be as quiet as possible. Haibara followed, and a quick search confirmed that the library was empty. "I can probably reach the yearbooks if you give me a boost," she whispered, and he nodded and led the way to where they were kept.

Soon, they had the 1972-1973 yearbook spread out on the table. Right inside the front cover was a dedication to a student and his family who had died early in the school year, and Conan's eyes narrowed as a theory began to form. "Haibara, give me a hand."

Having gotten the yearbooks he wanted to look at, he quickly flicked through them, smiling as he gathered evidence to support his theory. Some parts were missing of course, but he had a good idea of what had set Chibiki on his murderous path.

"You again!" Haibara looked up at Chibiki's voice, but Conan didn't turn around.

"Us again," the boy replied calmly, sliding off his chair and turning to face the librarian.

Chibiki's mouth was set in a hard line, indicating that he was upset, and his eyes were cold as he looked down at Conan. "Come with me. I'm calling your parents right now."

"No, you're not. You're not going anywhere," Conan said flatly, dropping his childlike demeanour entirely. The man blinked but didn't move, clearly sensing that something was wrong.

"What do you mean by that?"

"We mean we know what you are, Chibiki-san. We know everything," Haibara said, and Conan took his cue to begin.

"We know that you're the one who has been killing the students of Class 3-3, along with their families," he said, focusing entirely on Chibiki.

"What?!" His eyes had gone wide at the accusation, and he seemed to be stunned into silence for a moment. Then he took a breath and said in a calmer tone, "What foolish children you are to think that I would be capable of such an act."

"Don't deny it!" Glaring at Chibiki, Conan continued with growing anger, "You have been murdering the students of the class you used to teach ever since 1973, after the death of Yomiyama Misaki. You were so affected by their tragic death that you have been killing the students of Class 3-3 ever since, the same class in which Misaki-san belonged to!"

"And why would I do something like that?" Chibiki looked sad now, but Conan ignored his expression and pressed on.

"Misaki-san was an excellent student, popular with their classmates, and well-liked by everyone. I imagine that you probably got to know them well prior to becoming their teacher, and you must have been devastated when Misaki-san died. Perhaps your sorrow led you to become angry at the class the following year for not containing such a bright student and you took revenge on them. Or perhaps Misaki-san's death simply allowed you to unleash any pent-up rage you held, and once you started killing, you found yourself unable to stop, at least for any length of time."

Conan paused and pointed his finger at his suspect. "Whatever your reason for ending so many innocent lives is, your freedom ends today. You are a coward and a killer, and I won't let you kill anyone else!"

"You're right, I am a coward." Chibiki closed his eyes, then looked directly at Conan. "But I am not a killer. I did care for Misaki-san, but I cared for all my students, even if I didn't always show it. I don't know how you learned so much, but you are wrong to accuse me of such a terrible crime."

"Then prove it. Prove your innocence to us," Haibara said, and Conan nodded firmly. In the unlikely chance Chibiki was innocent, he would need to see proof. But he doubted it was so - everything fit together too well.

"I cannot. The only thing I can do is to tell you why all the deaths are not my fault." The librarian looked tired as he went over his desk and removed a large folder from a drawer and handed it to Haibara. "These are all the class rosters from 1972 to now, containing a list of everyone who has died. You'll see an X by the name of the deceased. Why would I keep records of the crimes I have committed?"

"As a trophy to relive the kills by," Conan declared softly as his partner began to go through the files. "Plenty of serial killers do it, so you'd be far from the first." He narrowed his eyes and added, "If you don't start telling the truth, then we'll call in a detective. Hm, but which one? Heiji Hattori? What about Kudo Shinichi? Or would you rather Mouri Kogoro?"

"The Great Detectives of the East and West as well as Sleeping Kogoro…you have some interesting friends, boy. Call them in if you wish, it won't change what I'm about to tell you. Or the fate of this town." Oddly, Chibiki didn't seem bothered by the threats. Most other criminals would have been shaking already.

"Hold on a moment." Conan turned to look at Haibara, who held up two pieces of paper. "Why are the names of some students written at the bottom of later class rosters?"

"That belongs to the reason why I am not the killer." Chibiki settled into his chair and gave him a measured look. "It sounds impossible, but Death lives in this town." Conan gritted his teeth, ready to lash out for blaming something that didn't exist, but the man continued talking. "You are correct when you say Misaki's death started all of this, but it's not what you think."

Chibiki took a moment to collect himself, ignoring the glare of fury he was getting from Conan. "After Misaki died, everyone was devastated, including myself. Then one of my students declared that Misaki was not dead, that he was sitting at his desk like normal. Soon, everyone was playing along, acting like he was still with us, myself included. When graduation came, we took a picture, still pretending that he was present and leaving a space for him. It was only when the picture was developed that we realized we had made a terrible mistake - for there Misaki was, a little blurry but there, standing in his allotted space and smiling with the rest of us."

Conan breathed in sharply, recalling the class picture in the paper. He had originally thought that it was simply a flaw in the original photo or caused by the scanning process, but the rest of the picture was too nice for that. "That…that doesn't prove anything!"

"No, it does not. But I'm not done." Chibiki's voice lowered as he spoke, and a sorrowful expression appeared on his face. "I remained as the homeroom teacher for Class 3, thinking that perhaps everything would return to normal. Then my students and some of their family members started dying. We had no idea what was happening until after graduation, when one of the student's names disappeared from that year's roster and appeared in its original place on the class roster for 1968. Somehow, that student had returned to life and come back to their former class." The man paused and looked out the window nearest his desk. "Fearing for my life, I became the librarian, and watched as more innocent people died the next year, another student returning to the afterlife after graduation. Eventually, someone figured out that the deaths were somehow connected to Yomiyama Misaki and the class of 1972, and the class as a whole tried to figure out how to deal with the calamity that was befalling them."

"What about the police? Why didn't they do anything?" Conan asked, still not believing any of it.

"They couldn't do anything, although not for lack of trying. I recall mentions of a serial killer back then, so it's not a new idea. But no one outside the class could do anything. It took far too many deaths to come until a viable solution was found, as indicated in the class rosters."

"He's right. There are some years no one has died, but a name is still written at the bottom," Haibara confirmed, causing Conan to frown. It almost sounded like she believed this curse business. She moved to stand beside him then, murmuring softly, "You are forgetting an important piece of evidence, Edogawa-kun."

"Am I now?" he said, angry at how this was going.

"You are. How did you find out about this case?"

"I overheard some local students mentioning it."

"What exactly did they say?" He blinked at the question, then stared at Chibiki's desk as he tried to remember the exact words of the girl.

"That Akazawa Kazuma's death made two so far, and that the girl couldn't talk about it before her older brother was in the class. The boy with her said that 'it' always started in spring…" he trailed off as realization struck him. Why would the parents openly talk about a serial killer, and why was spring so important?

"The deaths…" Conan said slowly, raising his gaze to Chibiki, "have they always occurred within the span of the school year?"

"They have," the librarian confirmed with a nod.

"Were you out of town for any length of time?"

"I left for several months to assist my father when he fell ill, and to attend several weddings and other events."

"When were they?" As Chibiki listed the dates off as best as he could remember, Haibara checked the rosters, confirming that several deaths had occurred when the man was out of town. "That just means you have an accomplice," Conan stated afterward, unwilling to concede the point.

"Unlikely, since I have been at this school for far longer than any of the other staff, and I have no siblings to assist me," Chibiki replied calmly, and the detective ground his teeth together in frustration.

"You said a solution was found. What was it?" he asked at last.

The librarian didn't hesitate as he answered, "The solution was to choose one of the students in the class and declare them to be nonexistent for the entire school year. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't, with no clear reason as to why."

Conan frowned and rubbed his chin, mentally putting everything together. If this hypothetical curse was somehow linked to Class 3-3, it made sense that it would always begin in early April, when the new school year started. That would also explain the cycle of death notices in the newspaper - since he had been reading through them backwards, he hadn't really taken into account the start and end of the school year when the deaths either began or ended. Charting it out now, he could see it clearly. There seemed to be no evidence supporting an accomplice, and Chibiki had already said why the police had turned a blind eye to everything.

"So most people seem to be aware of this curse, at least on some level…" he murmured to himself, trying to rationalize another reason for the deaths. "Still, there's no hard evidence disproving that you are a serial killer, Chibiki-san!" he added forcefully, glaring at the man again. He had worked too hard on this case to let the culprit slip though his fingers now.

"There's no evidence proving that he is a serial killer, either." Haibara said, and Conan spun around to face her, mouth hanging open in shock. "Think about it, Edogawa-kun. There are no pictures, witness reports, or other evidence proving that he was at any of the crime scenes, and I would imagine that many of the accidental deaths would have been very complicated to pull off. I'm not saying it's impossible for a librarian to do those things, just that it's improbable."

"But-" he tried to cut in, but she kept going, lowering her voice so he had to strain to hear her.

"We also know that things otherwise deemed impossible also occur, otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation. What is that favourite saying of yours? 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?'"

Stunned into silence by her speech, Conan looked back to Chibiki, seeing that he was watching them calmly, hands folded atop his desk. Haibara was right, he _didn__'__t_ have any hard evidence either proving or disproving that Chibiki was a serial killer. And while he had brushed it off before, the idea of the town being cursed had come up several times in his investigation. It was impossible…but maybe it was the truth.

"Why do so many people die if Death is already present?" he asked, hardly believing the words coming out of his mouth.

Chibiki sighed and adjusted his glasses before speaking. "No one knows for sure, but it might be that nature is trying to correct the disrupted balance between life and death that is present in the class. I take it you believe that I am not what you say I am?"

"…Perhaps," Conan admitted, suddenly feeling defeated. "The deaths at the shrine in 1983, were they caused by this curse as well?"

"As far as I am aware, they were." The detective nodded, closing his eyes. There was no way a killer could have predicted a storm, and the deaths of two students was too much of a coincidence not to be related to the curse.

"So can it be stopped?"

"No, it cannot. Only averted, assuming the countermeasures work," Chibiki replied, voice filled with guilt and sadness.

"Let's go, Haibara. There's nothing else we can do here." Before he walked away, he looked back at the man. "I apologize, Chibiki-san. I was certain you were the one behind everything."

"Understandable, considering the situation. What are your names, children? You seem quite smart for your age," Chibiki commented, a spark of interest in his eyes.

Unable to even summon up a smile, Conan replied, "Edogawa Conan, detective."

"Haibara Ai."

"Pleased to meet you, Edogawa-kun, Haibara-chan," the librarian replied formally.

Conan nodded and decided to ask the one remaining question he had. "If you ever learn more about what's going on, could you contact Kudo Shinichi and let him know? I'm sure he'd be interested in hearing about it."

Chibiki stared at him for a moment, dark eyes unreadable, then nodded. "I shall. Be careful on your way back to the hotel, you two." Not surprised that he had figured out who they were with, Conan said that they would, and followed Haibara out of the library.

A brisk wind tugged at his clothes and Conan stood in before the family grave, his eyes fixed on one of the names carved into the stone. "Yomiyama Misaki…why? Why did your classmates love you so much to call your spirit back?! Why did that cause others to return, and why did that result in so many deaths? _Why?!_"

It was a question he couldn't answer, and he hated it. He had been so certain that the town was being plagued by a serial killer, but the real killer was something he couldn't bring to justice. He was as helpless to stop the curse as the families of those in Class 3-3. Even the class itself couldn't end the calamity they were involved in. He remained there for a few minutes longer, then went in search of the other grave he wanted to visit.

This time, no one stood before it, but the wilting flowers told him that Akazawa's sister had been here the day before. "I'm sorry," Conan murmured to the grave. "I'm sorry I couldn't end this so your sister would be safe. I just hope that she doesn't end up in that class." He remained before the grave until the sun set and the streetlights flickered to life, returning to the hotel with a heavy heart.

"Hey, look at that!" Conan looked up from his manga at the cry from the front of the bus, and looked out the window next to him. The road the bus was driving along was bordered by one of the canals that ran through Yomiyama, and as the vehicle slowed down, he saw a cluster of people gathered on the opposite bank.

"No…" he breathed, recognizing the police uniforms and coroner outfits. He quickly located the body they were gathered around, and while the distance and the angle of the morning sun made it difficult to see, the deceased appeared to be a slim figure with brown hair.

Overcome with despair, he looked away from the window as the bus moved past the crime scene, ignoring the chatter of his curious classmates as he looked at Haibara. Seated next to him, she had also had a good view of the sight, and she looked just as unhappy as he felt.

"Aww, no fair," Genta complained from the seat behind them. "We leave just as a case appears for the Detective Boys!"

Footnote

Canon sources for _Another_ list Asakura Mami as being the extra student for 1996.


End file.
